It’s hard to believe another Field Day has come and gone already. This year’s outing was a wet one, but the lousy weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the Boschveldt QRP Club members. We had another great weekend of catching up with old friends and reminiscing about past Field Days. There was some radio involved, too.
Once again, a gracious friend allowed us to set up camp on his property. It’s a beautiful field with great elevation. It easily accommodated the three stations we set up this year. Our participants this year were: WB3GCK, NK1N, K3YTR, and K2AFO. We operated 3A here in eastern Pennsylvania, using our club callsign, W3BQC.
When I arrived midday on Friday, Glen NK1N was already on site and setting up a shelter for our food station. I gave him a hand with that and set about putting up my tent.
Since we were expecting rain all day Saturday, I set up my antenna and radio, too. As in previous years, I used my KX3 and a 53-foot inverted L antenna fed with a 9:1 unun. I also used my little Evolve netbook for logging, rig control, and CW keying. This was the third Field Day for this cheap little laptop, and it handled the workload with no issues.
NK1N camped out in his jeep and operated from a shelter attached to his jeep. Glen was running a KX2 to an 85-foot inverted L. He fed the antenna through a 4:1 unun with four radials. This antenna always works great for him.
When Ed K3YTR arrived, Glen and I helped put his G5RV Jr. up in the trees. Ed brought a couple of radios and planned to operate SSB this year. Unfortunately, a variety of equipment issues interfered with that plan. After everything was set up, we headed out to a local restaurant for dinner.
Sadly, the weatherman’s forecast for Saturday was dead-on. As predicted, it started raining and continued on and off for the rest of the day. Although it was mostly light showers, it was just enough rain to be annoying.
Glen set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in the food shelter so we could network our logging computers. We gave that a test, and I helped K3YTR get his computer configured for the network. To make sure my station was ready to go, I worked a couple of POTA activators.
Andrew K2AFO arrived to spend the day with us. With some time to kill before Field Day kicked off, a few of us headed out for lunch.
Once Field Day started, I ran CW on 40M, while Glen ran CW on 20M and 80M after dark. Andrew brought his Xiegu G90 and used Glen’s antenna to run SSB for the first few hours. Sadly, K3YTR could never get his station up and running. Glen and I both had a few contacts on 15M and 10M.
Early on, the band conditions weren’t great, with a lot of fading on the bands. The good thing about Field Day, however, there is always a station out there somewhere that will hear you. Thankfully, conditions improved later in the day.
Glen had good success on 20M and then a great run on 80M late in the evening. He also copied the ARRL Field Day bulletin and fired off our Section Manager message using Winlink on HF.
Given the rainy weather, we weren’t able to have a campfire this year. One of our Field Day traditions is roasting marshmallow PEEPS® over the fire. I like to call them crème brûlée on a stick. That’ll have to wait until next year, I guess.
Glen was up early and had a good run on 80M. After coffee and donuts, we got back on the air for a few more hours.
Since Glen had a two-hour drive back to New Jersey, we started tearing down around 0900 (local). Although it had stopped raining, my tent was still wet. I just rolled it up and stashed it in the back of the truck to deal with back home.
Unfortunately, K3YTR’s issues weren’t over yet. His car wouldn’t start, so I had to give him a jump-start. After that, we all headed out and arrived at our homes safely.
We ended up with 223 QSOs this year, with the vast majority of those on CW. It was far from our best showing. Given the highly informal nature of our Field Day operations, it wasn’t too bad by our standards.
It’s unclear if we’ll be able to use this site again next year, so we might have to find another location. Wherever we end up, I hope the weather is better than this year.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 